Academy

Welcome to the Total War: ROME II Academy, Commander! Here you’ll learn the skills you need to become the greatest leader the empire has ever seen. This page will teach you the skills to control your army on the campaign map and battle, not to mention how to navigate the tense political and diplomatic climate. All very important skills that any great leader needs to master before conquering an empire. After all… Rome wasn’t built in a day. Good luck!

About Total War: ROME II

ROME II is the best-selling title in Total War’s long history. Set against a classical backdrop charting the rise of Rome as the world’s first superpower, ROME II allows you to play as many different factions of the time, across a vast theatre stretching from the western tip of Portugal to the jewelled cities of the Middle-East.

Engage in diplomacy and politics as you chart your rise to strategic dominance. Develop new technologies and build mighty cities as your empire expands. And crush your enemies in the most spectacular real-time battles ever portrayed in a historical strategy game.

ROME II – Empire Divided: How to Play Roman Factions (2/2)

Learn how to play the Roman factions in the Empire Divided DLC for Total War: ROME II.

Learn how to play the Roman factions in the Empire Divided DLC for Total War: ROME II with this handy guide.

There are 3 major Roman factions available to play: Palmyra, Gallic Rome and Rome, who all receive the “Defenders of Civilisation” trait, giving them a 15% morale buff to all units when fighting in allied territory. They also receive a major diplomatic penalty with other Roman factions as a result of the “True Roman” trait.

Palymra, lead by the regent Queen Zenobia, receive the “Enlightenment Ruler” trait, granting them a 20% boost to the research rate. They also benefit from “Piety”, which gives a -4 bonus to banditry for each cult building owned.

Zenobia begins as the smallest Roman faction and will need to rely on her superior technology to keep up with Rome and Gallic Rome.

Led by the fearsome Tetricus, Gallic Rome benefit the “Romanisation” and “Administrators” traits which grant a bonus to public order when Latin culture is present and -20% political action costs respectively.

Gallic Rome will look to build a strong base at the start of the game, using public order buffs to keep cities happy whilst their armies are away fighting.

Aurelian, the feared leader of Rome, benefit from the “Iron Fist” trait, giving his faction a -50% resistance to foreign occupation. They also posses the “Marching Orders” trait, providing them with a 15% movement range bonus for all armies.

Both Rome and Gallic Rome both have several client states the start of the campaign who will aid in wars. Be sure to keep a close eye on them as they may look to break away.

ROME II – Empire Divided: How to Play Non-Roman Factions (1/2)

Learn how to play the non-Roman factions in the Empire Divided DLC for Total War: ROME II.

Learn how to play the non-Roman factions in the Empire Divided DLC for Total War: ROME II with this handy guide.

The Germanic Kingdoms, consisting of the Saxoni, the Gothi and the Marcomanni, all receive the “Terrors of the Night” trait, allowing them to initiate battles at night; along with the “Looters and Raiders” trait, giving them an additional 150% income from raiding and sacking.

The Eastern Empires are comprised of the Sassanids and Armenia, who both benefit from the “Centralised Authority” trait which provides a -5 to banditry in all provinces and the “Silk Road” trait which gives a 20% buff to all commerce buildings in all regions.

Only containing one faction, the Alani, are the Nomadic Tribes. They posses the “Nomadic Archers” trait which grants them 25% more ammunition for all units and the “Warlike People” trait, giving them +3 army recruitment slots in their home province.

Lastly, the Britannic Celts are comprised of the Caledoni, posses the “Heroic Culture” and “Sacred Springs” traits, granting them a 20% charge bonus for all units and +6 sanitation to all provinces respectively.

Each of these factions also posses their own unique traits, such as the Saxoni who benefit from the “Voyagers” trait giving them an additional 20% movement range for any fleets they own.

ROME II – Empire Divided: Explaining the New Campaign Features

Learn about the new campaign features coming in the Empire Divided DLC for Total War: ROME II.

Learn about the new campaign features coming in the Empire Divided DLC for Total War: ROME II with this handy guide.

Banditry is on the rise, as the authority over roman lands have diminished in recent years. Bread roaming marauders now scour the lands, looking to raid minor settlements and trade routes. In the Empire Divided campaign, the province detail tab now displays a banditry bar which increases as your empire grows. When banditry is on the rise, you will see a decline in a province’s food output, which could lead to a global food shortage. Combat this by constructing certain local buildings and mustering more armies.

Plagues have been reworked and are now tied closely to the sanitation levels within each province. The lower a province’s sanitation, the higher the risk of an outbreak which has a chance to trigger each turn. Plagues can spread from city to city following marching armies and trade routes.

The 3rd century has seen the rise of mysterious cults, represented in Empire Divided by new building chains. There are three different cults to choose from, Christianity, Mithraism and Manichaeism, each offering different bonuses and drawbacks.

New events and missions will challenge you throughout the campaign including a set of religious events unique to each cult, as well as prophecy and banditry events.

Rome, Gallic Rome, Palmyra, The Sassanids and The Gothi all have their own unique leader events, allowing you to improve their respective faction leaders through a series of choices.

New additional buildings have been added such as the “administration” building chain, which is exclusive to the Roman factions, dealing with tax collections, agent improvement and countering banditry. Each faction also have their own versions of a new naval training building.

Finally, all technologies have been completely restructured and revamped to better suit the new factions.

Total War: ROME II – Explaining the Changes to Politics and Diplomacy

Learn about the new politics and diplomacy systems in the latest free patch for Total War: ROME II.

Learn about the new politics and diplomacy systems in the latest free patch for Total War: ROME II with this handy guide.

When selecting factions for a campaign, you can also take control of the ruling political party, whereupon your faction’s leader will become the head of said party.

When in the campaign, click on the faction button to bring up the political tab. The government overview is displayed on the left-hand side, here you can see how much influence a party has in your nation’s government. Hover your cursor over each colour to view more information about each party.

Each political party that is currently in your empire is listed to the right, each have their own traits which will affect their loyalty towards you.

Next to that are the party statistics. How many senators a political party owns are displayed here, as well as the loyalty this party has to your rule. If this goes into minus after the first 20 turns of your campaign there is potential for the party to break away from you, taking the general and any provinces they have influence over, forming a new faction.

You can also take actions against each political party to either secure their loyalty for a short amount of time, or provoke them. This may lead to a secession, allowing you to deal with them before they get out of control. Tread carefully as this can lead to civil war.

Lastly, statesmen can be sent on missions in the character tab, these will give bonuses to a certain area of your campaign along with improving their party’s loyalty to your house.

Total War: ROME II – How to Control Your Campaign

Learn how to dominate the ancient world by using the campaign UI in Total War: ROME II.

Learn how to dominate the ancient world by using the campaign UI in Total War: ROME II with this handy guide.

On the top-left of the campaign screen are the game options and the Advisor, who will pop up now and again to offer assistance to the player.

The faction summary tab is located on the bottom-left, here you can see your current political situation and look at the characters in your empire in more detail.

To the right are the objectives where current objectives and the final victory conditions are displayed.

The trade and finance tab will show a breakdown of income and expenditure as well as current trading partners of your faction. Here, you can increase or decrease tax levels to gain more money at a loss to public order and growth.

Across from that is the technology tab. Here, you can conduct research to unlock new units and buildings.

Above the map is a pop-up list of information such as event messages and the forces tab, which lists your armies and fleets. The province tab shows all the provinces you have discovered and known factions displays the other factions you have encountered.

Below the map is the end turn button, along with information about your treasury, income, food supply and the current date of the campaign.

Clicking on an army will bring up the army overview panel, here you can view details about the army and its general, as well as change an army’s stance. You can also hire more units and mercenaries.

The province tab works in a similar manner: click on any city to bring it up. From here, you can pass edicts to give your region a bonus, as well as construct new buildings or upgrade existing ones. To the right are the province details which list a province’s wealth and income, as well as public order and culture.

Total War: ROME II – How to Control Your Armies in Battle

Learn how to effectively control an army when in battle in Total War: ROME II.

Learn how to effectively control an army when in battle in Total War: ROME II with the help of this handy guide.

Whilst in battle, select individual units by left-clicking, or select multiple by left-clicking and dragging a box around the desired units. To select multiple units individually, hold CTRL and again, left-click on the units you wish to order. You can do this on both the battlefield and the unit cards located at the bottom of the battle UI screen.

To select your entire army at once, press both CTRL and A. To deselect, simply click away from your units.

The camera can be moved by using the W, A, S and D keys and sped up by holding down SHIFT. You can move up and down by scrolling the mouse wheel.

To rotate the camera, use the Q and E keys or holding down the mouse wheel will allow you to rotate in any desired direction.

Press ESC at any time to open the menu, where you can change your settings or concede the battle.

To move units into position, simply select using the methods above and right-clicking on the desired destination. Holding right-click whilst dragging will allow you to move units into a precise formation. Hold down the spacebar to view your units’ destinations.

You can queue up attacks by holding SHIFT and giving a move order; a unit will proceed to follow these commands one by one.

To put units into a locked group, press CTRL and G. Whilst in this group, units will aim to stay in their current formation. You can also take advantage of preset formations which can be found at the bottom of the UI.

Total War: ROME II – How to Manage Your Province

Learn how to manage your provinces effectively in Total War: ROME II.

Learn how to manage your provinces effectively in Total War: ROME II with this handy guide.

Clicking on a city that you own will open up the province overview panel: here you can see a summary of the province, its current culture and public order, food production and the income the selected province produces. All of these statistics can be hovered over with your cursor to reveal a tooltip with more information.

Moving to the province overview tab will show you all the cities that are in the province including their respective buildings. However, if you do not currently own all the settlements within a province, their owners’ faction flags will appear there instead.

The population surplus (if any) of a province is displayed on the top left of the province overview tab; this is used to create more building slots within a city. If a new slot is left empty for too long it will turn into slums which are expensive to remove, so be careful!

Next to the province overview panel is the details tab, clicking this will reveal a more in-depth look at the province. Here, you can see the current wealth and income of a city, as well as how slaves are affecting your empire. Below that you can see the corruption levels, this will grow with your empire reducing your income over time.

Public order is also displayed: hovering over it will reveal the modifiers affecting contributing to its improvement and decline.

Finally, clicking on the raise force button will allow you to create new armies and the recruit agent button enables you to summon agents to your empire.

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